Director: Sameer Vidwans
Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani, Gajraj Rao, Supriya Pathak Kapur, Shikha Talsania and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 2.5 Stars
No means no— a phrase that got conversational after Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Pink in 2017 has been picked up by several filmmakers soon after in their films but seems like debutant director Sameer Vidwans took it all in his stride way too beyond. He definitely seems to aim for a progressive interpretation of a women-oriented film but eventually makes it a film about machismo.
Sattu aka Satyaprem (Kartik), a LLB fail desperately wants to fall in love and settle down. In search of his life partner, he comes across Katha (Kiara Advani), an aspiring concert singer from Ahmedabad during Garba celebrations and experiences love at first sight. The two tie the knot. Sattu’s life turns upside down when he discovers the bitter past of Katha a few days after their not-so-rosy wedding. Will Sattu and Katha live happily ever after?
Sameer, whose clear intention is to make a social drama, skips to build a narrative around a woman’s empathy when actually the film’s dialogues speak louder than the plot. The first half is unbearable rather it is stretched in the name of establishing the characters, vibe, and tonality of the whole film. The interval point witnesses the predictive twist but the second half goes twirling around the same.
Shouldn’t the film be about Katha’s pain, her fight against all odds, and dealing with her harsh reality of life? Sameer makes it a man’s film that glorifies the suffering of his wife. It doesn’t stop here, he even makes peace with the sexual tension between the two and decides to be a virgin forever in the name of marital equality. With all due respect to the statistics documented at the end of the film, this social experiment is lousy.
Over to Gujju Pataka; Kartik, who has a heroic entry as expected is loud enough to resonate with his portrayal of a Gujarati boy. He dances well— but that’s in his DNA. His popular monologue adds a bit of relief. Kiara looks pretty and in this one too, she proves her mettle as a typical Bollywood quintessential heroine. Supriya Pathak Kapur and Gajraj Rao do justice with their respective parts. Shikha as Sejal is wasted as a Zumba coach and a cranky sister, who has nothing much to offer except to outshine matriarchy.
The music might pick up during the upcoming Garba celebrations, but Satyaprem Ki Katha gives a solid feel of a Gujarati daily soap. Sadly, you won’t even get to see the Gujarati delicacies especially when the characters are eating or even mentioning them throughout. The film is an overdose of dramatic events in a lower middle-class society set against the backdrop of Gujarati culture.
